Recent polls have shown that a large majority of Americans think the economy is in bad shape. Indeed, stock markets are volatile, the mortgage crisis has worsened and President Bush recently released a record breaking budget that is expected to cause rising deficits. While the skyrocketing costs of the Iraq war are not helping, job and wage growth are weak, family debt is rising and the poverty rate remains high.
Yet the right wing continues to downplay the faltering economy. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) recently blamed it all on the American people, saying that it’s just “psychological.”
Last night on Fox News, former Bush aide Karl Rove claimed that the economy is partly responsible for his former boss’s record low approval ratings. But according to Rove, the media — not Bush’s disastrous policies — are to blame:
O’REILLY: The negativity toward President Bush is Iraq driven?
ROVE: I think it’s principally. I think the economy — the media has been beating the drum for years and years and years that the economy stinks. And after a while, that begins to color people’s attitudes.
Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/02/rovebillo.320.240.flv]
Experts, including Fed Chariman Ben Bernanke, have also concluded that the economy is in decline. And even though Bush recently recognized “uncertainties” in the economy, he continues to paint a rosy picture, saying that a recent White House “report indicates that our economy is structurally sound.”